DALLAS — A frustrated Jalen Brunson picked up a technical foul in the second quarter for complaining to a referee, and the point guard acknowledged it affected his play as the Knicks were pummeled in the first half of a 128-124 loss to the Mavericks on Thursday night.
“Yeah, it’s tough. I can’t be in that mindset of letting things frustrate me,” said Brunson, who finished with 30 points but only shot 4 of 12 in the first half. “I got to be better. And we got to be ready from the start of the game and that’s on me.”
After picking up the technical, Brunson claimed on the court that he was directing his words toward coach Tom Thibodeau, not referee Danielle Scott. He declined to explain his frustration after the game, fearing a fine from the league.
“I love to keep my money,” he said. “So I’m going to keep my money.”
The Knicks were whistled for 25 fouls compared to Dallas’s 19 but took only two fewer foul shots. The discrepancy was a lot wider in the first half.
“Hey look, sometimes — and I understand, I don’t really care if the game was called tight or it was called loosely. I just want consistency,” Thibodeau said. “So there was some frustration there but that’s all part of it. We’ve got to handle that.”
OG Anunoby was preparing to guard Luka Doncic. Instead, with Doncic ruled out the night prior with an ankle sprain, he drew Kyrie Irving and struggled to hold down the skilled point guard.
“Just trying to make him take the most difficult shots possible,” Anunoby said. “And he makes those shots all the time. Not getting discouraged is the key.”
Irving finished with 44 points despite being hounded by the bigger and stronger Anunoby, who did as good a job as possible for allowing that much scoring.
“We know systems well. I had an idea about how they were going to guard me tonight,” Irving said. “But seeing OG for the majority of the game, and he forced me into some tough decisions down the stretch. It was definitely a different Knicks team than I played last year.”
The potential return of Mitchell Robinson to an increasingly stout defense has his teammate and good buddy Isaiah Hartenstein thrilled about the prospects of nonstop “high level” play in the middle.
“It’s something that can be really great,” Hartenstein said. “I feel like even the second half of last season me and Mitch were kind of 50/50 on minutes. So when he comes back that’s 48 minutes of high-level center play. So I’m excited for him to come back. I think it’s something that’s going to take our team to another level.”
Robinson has been out since Dec. 12 after undergoing surgery on his fractured left ankle. With news Wednesday that the league denied the Knicks’ application for a Disabled Player’s Exception for Robinson, there’s increased optimism of a Robinson return by the end of the regular season.
The Knicks applied for the DPE despite knowing there was a possibility Robinson could return, and the league’s review of the medical situation reinforced that it shouldn’t be a season-ending procedure.
About three years ago, Robinson underwent surgery on his fractured right foot and the recovery took longer than anticipated. Following his latest surgery, Robinson relayed feelings of dejection on social media. He even posted this week, “My mental health has been giving me hell this past week. So I’m going to be off social media for a while until I get myself back.”
“At the beginning of the surgery, you never know what can happen,” Hartenstein said Thursday. “There can be setbacks. There could be times where it goes faster. So he was kind of just — he wants to come back before the season ends, but you never know with injuries like that, if there’s a setback, if it goes better than expected. So that’s kind of where he was at [when the injury first happened]. I think him [potentially coming back] is something good for him, a point where he can strive to. So I’m excited for him. I think it’s going to help him be more optimistic about the whole situation.”
A surging Julius Randle cracked the list of top All-Star voting.
The power forward, who was nowhere to be found on the ballot’s top-10 first returns last week, is now eighth among Eastern Conference frontcourt players, rising above Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges, Orlando’s Paolo Banchero and Washington’s Kyle Kuzma.
Brunson remains sixth among the Eastern Conference guards, but has more than double the votes (759,640) than Randle (361,202).
Both Knicks are legitimate All-Star options, but Randle has little chance to be a starter with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Jayson Tatum in the East.
For the starters, fan votes account for 50 percent and players and media split the other 50 percent. Coaches select the reserves.
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